Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (6 July 1923-25 May 2014) was the head-of-state of the People's Republic of Poland from 1981 to 1990, and led Poland during the Cold War as an ally of the Soviet Union. During his reign, he was faced by several democratic movements such as Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, and in 1981 he declared martial law to put down these rebels. However, in 1989 the communist government fell, although he remained President from 19 July 1989 to 22 December 1990 as the first President of Poland.

Biography
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923 in Kurow, Lublin Voivodeship, Interwar Poland and was raised in the family estate at Wysokie near Bialystok. His family fled to Lithuania in 1939 at the start of World War II, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union conquered Poland. However, in 1940 Lithuania was conquered by the USSR, and his family was deported to Siberia. Sent to the Kazakh SSR, he worked in the Karaganda coal mines and was stricken with snow blindness, suffering permanent back and eye damage. In 1942, his father died of dysentery while still a slave. His mother would live until 1966.

Jaruzelski joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West under Wladyslaw Anders in 1943 along with many other Polish prisoners-of-war held in Soviet camps, but he soon joined the Soviet-controlled Polish 1st Army and served in the capture of Warsaw and the Battle of Berlin. By the time the war ended, he was a Lieutenant. He credited himself in Soviet eyes by fighting the Polish Home Army from 1945 to 1947, and in 1948 he joined the Polish United Workers' Party. He also worked for the GZI WP intelligence agency of the People's Republic of Poland, helping to combat the "Cursed Soldiers" anti-communist rebels in the Swietokrzyskie region. In 1960 he became chief political officer of the Polish People's Army, rose to Chief-of-Staff in 1964, and in 1968 he became Minister of Defense. Under his rule, he sent General Florian Siwicki to assist in the quelling of the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia with other Warsaw Pact troops in late 1968. He also put down democratic movements with 27,000 troops in 1970, leading to massacres in Gdansk (Danzig), Gdynia, Elblag, and Szczecin (Stettin).

In 1981, Jaruzelski became Prime Minister of Poland. His intention at this point was to crush Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, and declared martial law in order to personally put down the workers' strikes rather than face the risk of a Soviet invasion (like what happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968). However, by December 1988 the Solidarity movement forced the Polish Communist Party to open talks with them. He remained leader of Poland until 1990, and Lech Walesa became the second President of Poland. Jaruzelski converted to Roman Catholicism and social democracy afterwards, although many people still hated him, and he died in 2014.